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"People ask the question...what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drugs, drums, and hospital drips, oh no. There's more there than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the fucking lot."

Who else can unite 7 million Euros, homosexuals, a child abused by his step-father, a rockstar who fakes his death a number of times, an old-school mobster and a new-school mobster, and a sophisticated black drug lord who has a passion for fine art? Guy Ritchie, that’s who; a RocknRolla who wants nothing less than average. All these people, continuing all the way down the line with club managers (Chris Bridges and Jeremy Piven) and double crossing attorneys (Thandie Newton), may lead viewers keeping a score sheet at their side so they know what is going on. But let’s focus on Ritchie’s rebirth. Finding resilience to create a body of film again after previous disastrous efforts, like Swept Away and Revolver, is literally a feat in itself. Ritchie returns to the scene with a movie that lets us forget those previous films and lets us relish in RocknRolla, a movie that is both witty in a Pulp Fiction way and bristling with fortitude in a Fight Club way. That’s the problem, Ritchie should just let RocknRolla be RocknRolla.

England hasn’t looked grittier. A surreal overlay haunts the entire movie until it begins to slowly change to an overlay that wreaks extreme havoc, which eventually rubs off on to the characters. Underneath the city’ s pristine sidewalks lurk fat hungry rats. These rats come from the sewers and enter reality looking for their next meal when they get word that big money and prized personal possessions are on the move. They happen to be called “The Wild Bunch,” led by Gerald Butler, Idris Elba and Tom Hardy (who has a hilarious revelation). When an expensive painting goes missing they’re called upon to locate it. Everyone from its owner, a Russian mobster (Karl Roden) who is looking to buy real estate, to the old school mobster (Tom Wilkinson) who owns the land the Russian wishes to build upon and his right-hand man (a terrific Mark Strong), are all driven by greed.

Ritchie plagues the screen with characters so unsympathetic but arises from them slight sights of humanity; souls that may just be worth saving. The stealth-like passion doesn’t stop with the characters. Its radar is already programmed to ignite the story with some sense of morality. RocknRolla has some of that. There is some visual passion that leaks out unexpectedly, creating within us some sensitivity. Within Ritchie’s film lay some moments of affection. Yes, you heard me right, moments of affection in a Guy Ritchie film, which part akes in reneging aggravating aspects one might find familiar with this kind of movie.

Remember now, this is a Guy Ritchie movie.

Film Rating: ** 1/2 out of ****

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